Steve Gunn: Supreme Court wrong on 'juvenile lifer' ruling

CHRONICLE FILE PHOTOAmy Lee Black, 16, and boyfriend Jeffrey Abrahamson, 19, appear in Muskegon County's 60th District Court on Dec. 11, 1990, for their arraignment for the murder of David VanBogelen, 34, on Dec. 7, 1990. Black was convicted on May 22, 1991, as an adult and is still in prison. Abrahamson was also convicted of the murder.

Amy Lee Black once told authorities she wondered what it would be like to kill someone and get away with it.

Now she may actually find out, due to a legal opinion rendered last week by the increasingly nitpicky U.S. Supreme Court.

The very liberal Justice Elena Kagan wrote that life without parole should be an option for judges dealing with juvenile killers, but not the rule. She wrote that young murderers should sometimes be shown more forgiveness, due to “immaturity, impetuosity and failure to appreciate risks and consequences.”

Steve Gunn

In other words, cold-blooded murder can be viewed as a youthful indiscretion. Those silly kids. They’ll grow out of it. After all, who hasn’t committed a murder or two during their self-absorbed teen years? How can we be so judgmental?

Which brings us to Black, who was 16 years old on Dec. 7. 1990. That night she and her 19-year-old boyfriend lured 34-year-old David VanBogelen from a Muskegon Heights bar to their local apartment with the apparent intent of robbing him.

But somehow Black ended up bashing VanBogelen over the head with a heavy liquor bottle, and her boyfriend stabbed him. His body was discovered the next morning in a remote area of Muskegon County. The coroner said the blows to the head may have been the cause of death.

Black later told authorities, “I always wanted to know if you could just kill somebody and the cops not know that is was you. I did. I always wondered that.”

Well, the cops and everyone else know that Black committed this horrific crime. Yet the possibility exists that she could walk away a free woman, with no more penalty to pay.

How could that possibly be?

Defense attorneys are preparing to seek resentencing hearings, and parole boards would be required to hold hearings every 10 years for the juvenile lifers. They all still should be resentenced to life, even with the chance of parole. That would allow the parole board to listen to Black explain how she was young and stupid and didn’t know what she was doing, right before they tell her to burn in hell.

Anything less would be an insult to all of us who manage to get through every day without murdering anyone.

Killing without justification, in my opinion, should cost the guilty their own lives. But since Michigan doesn’t do capital punishment, life behind bars should be an absolute minimum sentence.

You show me a 16-year-old who doesn’t understand that murder is immoral, and I’ll show you a kid who is probably already beyond reform. At that point you’re probably dealing with an adolescent sociopath whose understanding of right and wrong is limited to whether or not they can get away with something.

If anything, punishment for youthful violence should be strengthened, not watered down. Too many parents these days no longer bother raising their children. They are too busy working, socializing and catering to the whims of their 45-year-old “boyfriends” or “girlfriends.”

They allow their children to be raised by television, movies, computers and video games. Violence is the norm in that world, and morals are treated like yesterday’s news. As a result we’re stuck with a generation of young monsters who are willing to do anything to get the material things they want and the attention they so desperately crave.

And when they kill someone, we’re expected to forgive and forget, because, after all, they aren’t very mature and weren’t raised correctly.

Sorry. I don’t buy it. Most vicious dogs were probably mistreated as puppies, but they remain a threat to society and must be put down. There are children out there who are every bit as vicious as the meanest pitbulll on the block.

Perhaps they can reform, but they’ve surrendered the right to do so outside of prison. A life was taken that cannot be restored, so freedom for the perpetrator should not be restored.

When are we finally going to learn an obvious truth: A society that refuses to draw a hard line when it comes to violent behavior is asking for more of the same, even from pimple-faced youngsters who supposedly aren’t mature enough to know any better.